It looks as though Microsoft is getting its ducks in a row
when it comes to final countdown for Windows Vista and Office 2007. According
to APC
Magazine, Microsoft has earmarked November 30 as the RTM date for both Vista
and Office 2007.

For retail customers, the expected launch date is January
30, 2007 for both software releases. This confirms the launch dates leaked by Amazon.com in late August.
APC Magazine reports:

For Vista, this will
include a build number of 6000, which also matches the 6.0 reference that
denotes Microsoft considers this the sixth full version of their beloved OS.
Both Windows 95 line and NT 4.0 were officially stamped as Windows version 4
(or variants, such as Windows 98 being 4.1); Windows 2000 was christened as version
5, and XP anointed as Windows version 5.1 (due to its being built on the
NT/2000 codebase).

Pricing for Windows Vista will range from $199/$99
(full/upgrade) for Vista Home Basic to $399/$259 for Vista Ultimate. Prices for
Office 2007 start at $149 for Office Home and Student 2007 and top out at
$499/$329 (full/upgrade) for Office Professional 2007.

Comments

Threshold

Username

Password

remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

Who here plans to buy this and install it immediately? Given the recent benchmarks from AT of decreased performance virtually across the board in all DX9 titles, I'm not sure if I'll be making the switch right away. Plus the price is kind of scary. However my university does give away free XP Pro/Office Pro 2003/Mac OS X/Office for Mac discs like candy, think they'll get Vista discs right away?

I would love to jump on it right on release day, but it's not worth the price to me. I'll just ask for it as a birthday present...in July. I've used RC2. It's nice, but my current system runs great. Nothing like fixing what isn't broken with unproven parts.

Besides, waiting gives me lots of time to read about the problems that other people are having and how they fixed them.

I'm thinking about getting whatever is leaked to torrents in November and buying a second SATA HDD just to try it out. If I don't like it I'll just kill it and use HDD for backup. There's non-zero probability I'll buy it ASAP in January, if it really runs my DVD recoding apps and games well enough. I tried RC1 at work and I love it so far, just have to test it with my app set and some games like UFO Aftershock and Call of Cthulhu, among others.

I'm holding back final judgments on DX9 titles, primarily because all of the graphics drivers out there are thoroughly unfinished (we're even talking basic Aero performance and dual monitor issues, and while there's no proof that there's any slowdown due to drivers...)

That said, I won't be picking it up immediately, for two reasons:

1) I'm planning on building a new computer in late summer- figure August or so. No plan to install a copy of Vista on a 4+ year old desktop (P4 2.53, 1GB RD800...you know, top in its day, but certainly not performance now).

2) I'm hoping that Ultimate upgrade (or at least Business upgrade) shows up on MS Student Select during the spring.

There is one (retail $259). What there is not is an Ultimate upgrade program- i.e., one where you buy XP and get a coupon. DT had a poorly titled article regarding this issue, but there is certainly an upgrade version of Ultimate.

I agree, i wont be buying right away. My university also has free copies of Microsofts OS and Office for students in technology related degree programs. I think i will wait until can get it through them. They will probably distribute Vista Ultimate because today they distribute XP Pro.